RANDOMLetters Neighborhood Councils Under Attack by ENC
Each neighborhood council has experienced a 26 percent decrease in funding in the past several years. We are aware of the financial situation of the city and I for one, have not to this date complained. However, the Education and Neighborhoods Committee is now considering a proposal that seeks to force all NCs to collectively pay for the costs of the upcoming NC elections which the city has previously committed to paying. Central San
Reflections on a Crazy Nation
Pedro Neighborhood Council, concerned about the length of time and funding required by the city to handle elections, chose to hold selection in June, at cost less than $1,000. Councilman Buscaino knows neighborhood councils and has consistent pledged support. He must stand up to those who would devastate the system by using back door tactics to eliminate funding. Linda Alexander, President Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council
The wealthiest 400 people in the US own more wealth than the bottom 185 million*. That’s crazy. Why isn’t this disparity front page news every day? Truthout serves a growing community of readers, writers and activists who are working to make the “news” reflect the realities that are actually affecting the lives of our fellow Americans. While the media obsesses about celebrity divorce and who Romney will pick to run with him, we’re going to keep pressing issues like poverty, education, civil liberties and the creeping militarization of our society.
Maya Schenwar, Executive Director and Matt Renner, Director of Development *Economist Gar Alperovitz.etime-put-all-your-money-onblack-roll-the-wheel-Vanna-package deal – a task undertaken (b
Shameless
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach recently declared to the press that,lawyers were ‘shameless’ in requesting fees in excess of $675,000 from the federal judges who drew up the redistricting maps that Gov. Brownback and the state legislature could not produce on time. I would like to remind read-
Community Alert
July 27 - August 9, 2012
Serving the Seven Cities of the Harbor Area
710 Corridor Project Draft EIR Released for Public Review
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Los Angeles—The California Department of Transportation has released the Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement for the Interstate 710 Corridor Project for a 60-day public review, ending on August 29. The project was developed in cooperation with various other agencies. The environmental review involves proposals to improve the Interstate 710 in Los Angeles County between Ocean Boulevard and State Route 60. Major elements include widening the I-710 freeway up to ten general purpose lanes (five lanes in each direction); modernizing and reconfiguring the Interstate 405, State Route 91 and a portion of the Interstate 5 interchanges with the I-710; modernizing and reconfiguring most local arterial interchanges along the I-710; and looking at a provision of a separate four-lane freight corridor to be used by conventional or zeroemission trucks. Written comments may be sent to: Ronald Kosinski, Caltrans District 7, Division of Environmental Planning, 100 South Main Street, MS 16A, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Or send an e-mail through the project website at http://www.dot.ca.gov/ dist07/resources/envdocs/ docs/710corridor/ Public comments hearings are being held in August. The Long Beach hearing date is from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 8, at Silverado Community Center in Long Beach. Details: www.dot.ca.gov/ dist07/resources/envdocs/ docs/710corridor Venue: Silverado Park Community Center Location: 1545 W. 31st St., Long Beach
ers of the more than $640,000 in lawyers fees to defend the unconstitutional and draconian abortion clinic regulations passed by our “free market” loving lawmakers in 2011. We should not forget the final bill yet to come for Dear Old Phill Kline and his the revolving door of lawyers is piling up, The great defender of the “preborn” has been throwing Kansas taxpayers money to his cronies toward keeping his lapsed Kansas law license. The bill isn’t in yet, but coupled with the millions he expended while in office to persecute women and their doctors for legal abortions it promises to be sizable. A fact most Kansas reporters have yet to get
paid to find out how much. A “known unknown” is the $75,000 to Art Laffer for his layover in the flyover zone of Topeka last year. Good Old Boy Art on his way to Tennessee declared Gov. Sam a genius in cutting state jobs, eliminating income taxes, etc. Bush #41 called Laffer’s methods ‘voodoo economics.’ Art declared victory and announced to the country that Kansas is having a “revolution in a corn field.” Then there is the $31 million Gov. Sam sent back to DC over the health insurance exchange program, and the million or so lost from matching grants for the arts, a small matter for people who only More Letters/ to following page
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Set Up to Fail had an interpreter there to interpret her remarks. She wanted to save her home, she wanted a modification, no one was listening to her and she needed help. The interpreter translated with an inflection in his tone that revealed his opinion that he thought this woman was less than worthy. It was somewhere within that moment and the ones that followed that I felt the imposition of hopelessness and distress that has been inflected on the home buyers in our country. Maricella was dressed humbly in jeans and a t-shirt, she brought her five children with her. It was not difficult to decipher the opinion of the panel sitting with the board and they glanced impatiently around. Gloria Molina, supervisor for the First District spoke to the woman impatiently, in Spanish, “Who told you to come here?” she demanded. “I am with the Occupy movement,” Maricella looked back for support. I was sitting next to Carlos Marroquin who is heading up the Occupy Fight Foreclosure action committee in Los Angeles. He is a hard working man with a genuine compassion for people. He has lost his own home to foreclosure and is determined to help others save theirs. He leaned over and whispered to me what was being said. “Gloria Molina is not being very nice to this woman,” he said in hushed tones, “She is talking down to her.” For the past 5 years I have seen the injustice of the propaganda perpetuated by Wall Street, “The home buyers got in over their heads, they got greedy.” Then this myth is further exacerbated by the damage it causes. A woman, a mother, a hard worker, who believed that the lender was helping her to
purchase a home, not setting her up to fail, begins to bend under the burden, she is offered a modification, and she sees hope only to be lured into foreclosure by the lenders that are still profiting from their fraud and because of their past reputations of trust and compliance. The lenders are still able to convince an uninformed public that the homebuyer is responsible for this mess. This propaganda might even work when someone like Maricella, who cannot communicate in their language, stands before the Country Supervisors, struggling for the words to express her outrage and discouragement…but after Maricella came others, dressed in suits and ties, dressed like business personnel, asking for a moratorium on foreclosures, outlining the fraud by the lenders. Some had homes in distress, others did not, but all asked for a moratorium and were wellinformed in their brief redress. As we began to leave the auditorium of the Board meeting, a liaison for Gloria Molina came down the aisle and asked to speak to us. She told us Gloria wanted to set up a meeting with Maricella to see what she could do to help her. She sent her down to the Department of Consumer Affairs to make an appointment for counseling. Too many home buyers are suffering in silence, like Maricella, they are afraid they will not be heard, and alone, they may not be, but if we stand together, we can make a difference, we can change the conversation from “deadbeat home buyers” to “Wall Street fraud.” We can change the course of history, or we can sit idly back until the thief comes to our door in the form of more lost equity in our homes or lost pension earnings as the lenders who are guilty of the fraud continue to grow richer.